Now Mei Yue needs to take some time to understand the relevant matters of starting a company. Xia Yuan has just released her first album. In the next period of time, everyone can devote themselves to the development progress of "Journey of the Cloud".
Maybe many people don’t know what the birth process of a game is like, so professional planner Mei Fang will introduce it to all newcomers -
First, students from the marketing or operations department conduct market research to understand the most popular categories, write evaluation reports, and show the boss and senior management the gameplay introductions, user portraits, market competitiveness, payment status, etc. of these categories.
Finally, with the help of professional data terms such as DAU, MAU, ARPU, etc., they will make their bosses and senior executives believe that as long as they choose products from the above tracks when incubating new projects, the company will surely prosper and get enviable year-end bonuses.
After that, the bosses and senior executives actually experienced the corresponding games based on the results of the survey, estimated the development costs, and evaluated their R&D team's control over the game. At the same time, they gave the project team a certain budget and asked them to expand and run-in the team around this category. The pressure then fell on the project leader.
The project leader of the R&D team is usually the chief planner. After the chief planner determines the category of game the boss wants, he or she will ask the planning team to play various games of the same category repeatedly, while preparing various materials for the new game and making a project report. After going through so many revisions back and forth, they can start making the game.
The chief planner first determines the basic gameplay system framework, the chief programmer begins to write the underlying code architecture based on the framework, and the chief artist formulates the art style and art specifications.
During this process, planners act as the middle office, continuously outputting requirement documents to programmers and artists based on the version content requirements set by the chief planner, thereby improving and optimizing the content of the product step by step.
This process is inevitably full of various adjustments and trials and errors, and starting over from scratch. Occasionally, the boss will take a look at the performance of the current version and make some comments. If the boss is not satisfied, the team will go back to optimize and iterate. The game is considered to have completed the first phase of the development cycle until the product is submitted for review.
The above is a relatively standard process for developing games, and in many cases it seems like an ideal process.
In fact, game development: the boss found a game in the top 10 or 20 best-selling list, played it for a few times, and felt that the game was good, so he called the project leader and said, "Let's make one like this and do it better than him."
The project leader worked silently for a while, and the boss would occasionally come to interrupt and say, "This game is also good. Add the gameplay of this game and the graphics of that game to your game. Well, I also want the theme of this game."
This is the behavior of a boss who wants to make games. The bosses who only want to make money from games have simpler ideas. He called the project leader -
"Come on, this game is very popular recently, let's make a skin. I think this thing is just so-so, it should be easy to make, and we can make it within 3 months."
Most of the pain and suffering that Mei Fang encountered when making games in his previous life came from the fact that the project leaders did not have a firm determination for the project. The gameplay changed every day, and everything had to be started over again at the boss's command. These were very demoralizing behaviors.
But after all, the developed games have not been tested by the market, and no one can guarantee that doing so is wrong, or that my game will definitely not work. It is normal for everyone to argue about this.
But there is no such problem in Ximilu Studio, because everyone is united around Mei Fang when working on the project.
The planners are Mei Fang and Zhang Ming. Now Zhang Ming's free time is at Mei Fang's disposal. Although he is still doing some work on the execution of the table, he is doing it quite seriously. Occasionally, he discusses some gameplay with Mei Fang to understand his intentions in designing.
When Mei Fang was the chief planner in his previous life, he often guided novice planners. This is a work skill he will never forget.
Artist Guo Yun obeyed Mei Fang's requests and tried hard to understand and satisfy her ideas. Her occasional self-expression only made Mei Fang feel brightened, and she did not feel that she was out of control.
As for the program, the main responsible persons are Lin Youxi and Mei Fang himself, but there is nothing much to say about this.
A professional planner who understands program development and doesn't make all kinds of wild and stupid demands and change things every day, and the two of them have more than ten years of experience in working together, what else can be said about the level of tacit understanding between them
Under Mei Fang's leadership, Lin Youxi quickly produced a simple demo package for the game and sent it out early the next morning for everyone to try out.
The main body of the character has been designed, and the main purpose is to test whether the functions of the basic framework are complete, as well as the performance of some art resources in the package.
Although the operations are similar, the overall effect is still far from the "GRIS" that Mei Fang remembered in his previous life, especially the operational feel and performance of the little man.
Lin Youxi also gave feedback on this, "The animation of this little man seems a little unsmooth... The fluttering of the skirt when turning around is very unnatural. Would it be better if Guo Yun added some action frames? However, this will also increase the amount of extra memory."
Mei Fang continued to use his experience as a reborn person, "The effect of the dragon bone animation is at most like this... Recently there is a new 2D animation production software called spine on the Internet. I think the effect of using it to make 2D characters is quite good."
"I'll look into it later."
"You just need to have a brief understanding of this. Ximilu Studio still needs to recruit more people. I will ask Sister Yueyue to help me hire some spine animators and special effects artists. This kind of TA technical artist who understands programming is also a key role in determining the strength of a product."
"Speaking of which, the amount of resources on the art side seems to be a bit small, but fortunately the quality is very stable..."
Lin Youxi couldn't help but think, "Before, you asked Guo Yun to find some artists who could help her with her work. Did that happen?"
"I see..."
When Mei Fang occasionally chatted with Guo Yun, she actually discovered that apart from daily classes, Guo Yun spent all her extracurricular time on game development and fitness, so it was natural that she had no social time.
"Huh... I had a good sleep."
Xia Yuan yawned as he came out of the bedroom. Seeing Lin Youxi and Mei Fang sitting in front of the computer desk, typing away on the keyboard, he immediately asked curiously:
"Why are you working so early in the morning? Have you had breakfast?"
"I've eaten. Your portion is on the table. It might be a little cold. You can heat it up in the microwave."
"Um... OK."
Xia Yuan went to the microwave to heat up breakfast. Halfway through her meal, she trotted over to Mei Fang with the bun in her hand. Seeing that Mei Fang was controlling the little man to move left and right, she excitedly leaned on Mei Fang's back to watch.
"Oh, we can play now! I want to play too."
“It’s just a demo version, it’s still early…”
Mei Fang has actually experienced a lot of Xia Yuan's heavy pressure in various forms, but there are relatively few barrier-free experiences like this one, which also makes him feel more stressed.
"Ah, I say, Yuanyuan... Can you change into your pajamas before coming over to play? I'm afraid you'll catch a cold."
"Uh... It's okay. It's not that cold today. Hehe... I feel like summer is coming soon."
"Do you have to wait for me to speak human words before you can react?"
Mei Fang held his forehead and sighed, "Baozi, Baozi... Pay attention to your Baozi."
"steamed stuffed bun?"
Xia Yuan first looked at the bun in her hand and its external structure, and then realized the meaning of Mei Fang's words, and her face suddenly turned red.
But she didn't rush to run away. Instead, she poked Mei Fang's back and teased him, "Brother Fang, you're too sensitive for just a slight touch. Hahahaha..."
"… "
Xia Yuan hadn't played for a few times when Lin Youxi beside him suddenly said:
"Yuanyuan, please stop being lazy. Don't you have a finished product for the game music yet? In the demo, there is no progress at all on your end."
"Oh... I'm still writing that. I should be able to give you two songs today."
Xia Yuan put his arm around Mei Fang's shoulders and whispered in his ear in a very intimate tone: "Hehe... Today I'll let you see how powerful I am."
There will be another chapter around 2:30. My gay friend is coming over to play mahjong. I may be able to update Baiyin Meng again in the evening.
(End of this chapter)